EXTRA RADIO LICENCES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 718, 18 July 1929, Page 11

EXTRA RADIO LICENCES

B. GRADE STATIONS MUST BE PERMANENT (TUB SUX'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Private people applying to the Post and Telegraph Department for licences to operate private broadcasting stations must satisfy the department of some degree of permanency in their plant, according to an answer to a question in the House of Representatives today by the Postmaster-General, the Hon. J. B. Donald. Mr. J. A. Nash (Falmerston) asked the Postmaster-General whether he would make a statement relative to the granting of licences for B class transmitting stations. “In addition to the four principal stations,” said the Minister, “there are twelve private broadcasting stations operating in New Zealand. Licences for private broadcasting stations are issued without payment of fees, provided the technical requirements are satisfied and there is evidence that the applicant can satisfactorily maintain the proposed service. “It is necessary to insure that transmission be of good quality, and also that there will he a minimum of interference with existing stations. In localities remote from places where Y stations are operating, the installation of private stations tends to encourage prospective listeners to purchase cheap non-selective apparatus. It is incumbent on the Post and Telegraph Department, therefore, in the interests of these people, to satisfy itself that some degree of permanency is guaranteed by applicants for private broadcasting stations.”